Definition
Locus of control describes the degree to which you perceive that outcomes result from your own behaviours, or from forces that are external to yourself. This produces a continuum with external control at one end and internal control at another.
Locus of Control
Your locus of control is absolutely essential to your resilience and one of the major building blocks to increasing it. The more internal your locus of control is the more resilient you will be. The more external your locus of control the more resistant you will be.
No one is external a hundred per cent of the time and no one is internal a hundred per cent of the time, it’s a continuum, however, for optimal resilience having an internal locus of control is essential. Those people who are most successful believe they are responsible for their success.
Let’s look at Internal and External Locus of Control –
Those with an external locus of control most of the time:
- Take little or no responsibility for their behaviours
- Blame others for what is wrong in their life
- Tend not to do things that will change their life for the better
- Emphasis is to avoid coming out of their personal comfort zones
- When things go wrong they often do not learn from their mistakes
- Tend to rely on other people’s approval to make them feel good
- Have weak boundaries and strong barriers
- Lack the ability to be able to inner reflect
Those with an internal locus of control most of the time:
- Take responsibility for their actions
- Do things that will change their situation for the better
- Emphasis is on striving for personal and professional achievement
- Work hard to develop their knowledge, skills and abilities
- When things go wrong they are inquisitive and try to work out why things turned out the way they did
- Tend not to blame others
- Have a more participative management style
- Tend not to rely on other peoples evaluation for their self-esteem
- Strong boundaries and weak barriers in most areas
- Have the ability to inner reflect
This is an extract from our Resilience Training
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